This article examines the way in which disputes about the ranking of chiefdoms and succession to high chiefly office have been handled in the democratic era. It focuses particularly on the extent to which these processes have been in alignment with South Africa's democratic Constitution. It discusses the prevalence of disputes about succession and their crippling i...

It is often suggested that the work of E. P. Thomson played a pivotal role in shaping South African historical writing and provided the foundations for a new school of social history. Thompson's writings - often refracted through many other texts - were one influence amongst many. This article, drawing on my own experiences of key moments of individuals and institu...

The Bokoni settlement in Mpumalanga, South Africa is the largest known terraced site in Africa. The settlement consisted of intensively farmed terraced fields spanning 150 kilometres along the eastern escarpment. It flourished from around 1500 until the 1820s, after which it all but disappeared. This article first sets out to interpret the growing body of primarily...

The essays in this special issue reflect the recent revival of interest in – for want of a better term – late pre-colonial history in southern African studies, and a renewed dialogue between historians and archaeologists.1 Its aim is to provide readers with a taste of the first fruits of this scholarship and to add to its growing momentum. The articles here publish...